Reactions to stolen hotel TV's? 1970 fort lauderdale

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by 17thielc

This is Nebraska we're talking here, not sure the motel it was stolen from had any alarms. But the set was obviously chizzled and torn off whatever mounted it. The thieves got alot of hours out of the set, and the repair man evidently didnt give it back after fixing it and putting it in his barn. The barn where I found a whole load of unfixed and some working sets including a Montgomery Wards Airline by Muntz.

Whether this happened in Nebraska or any other state doesn't matter, IMHO. The law is the law in any of our 50 states. I cannot believe the state of Nebraska is so far behind the times (or they believe theft, etc. cannot happen there) they don't have alarm systems in their hotels, or any public building for that matter. There should have been an alarm system in that hotel room that would have set off a loud alarm bell, horn, etc., not to mention notified the local police immediately, as soon as the TV was ripped off the dresser.

There is no excuse for this, in Nebraska or in any other state of the United States. I live in Ohio; I am sure if anyone tried to steal anything from a hotel (or anyplace else) anywhere in this state, they would not get away with it. Nebraska seems to be one of those states that doesn't have high crime rates; however, that is no excuse for failure to have burglar/fire/theft alarms in hotels and other public buildings.

[JohnCT]

I used to do the work for a motor Inn in Waterbury CT back in the 70s, and they did lose a TV occasionally to theft. The TVs were mounted on a two piece security base. I think a big ViseGrips pliers would rotate the lock cylinder in the front. The owner of the motel fitted each TV with a sonolert, a 9V battery, and a mercury tilt switch of his own design..

Later, some TVs had a terminating EOL resistor behind a standard RG59 input cable fitting that could be wired to a security system. If the alarm cable was unscrewed or uncut, it would notify the front desk. There must have been enough thefts so that someone would wire a hotel for a TV alarm.

John

[Dude111]

Its sad to think people would steal a TV but when you see how much better they are,its understandable I guess.......

[radiotvnut]

I remember hearing a story where an FBI agent was staying in a motel and the TV theft alarm went off. The people at the front desk said, "it must be a false alarm...he's an FBI agent and wouldn't steal the TV.....oh, maybe on 2nd thought, we'd better go check it." They got to his room just in time to catch him putting the set in the trunk of his car.

[old_tv_nut]

Errr...he was just testing the alarm.

[Dude111]

Hehe I wonder what he said to them??